Airy Japanese Kites Tough Enough To Fly

October 8, 1985|By Laura Stewart Dishman, Sentinel Art Critic

Whether as small as a credit card or as large as a picture window, all 40 contemporary Japanese kites in the new exhibit at Epcot Center are combinations of wood and paper handcrafted to soar and glide.

But the beauty of their traditional designs make them more than toys to be flown on a breezy day.

A ferocious face glares from one ''face-with-wings'' kite. Its brilliantly painted features depict the Indian Zen sage Bodhidharma, whose legs, according to myth, withered away during nine years of meditation.

Another kite shows a stylized red bird flying close to white waves on a blue sea. It may look like a Japanese version of a dove-of-peace banner, but the diamond-shaped kite was made for fierce combat. Sharp objects were attached to the kite's flying lines to slice the lines of other kites.

Another fighting kite, a rectangular one from Tokyo, is so elaborate that it is difficult to imagine exposing the kite to the open air, much less to aerial combat. Created by Teizo Hashimoto, a respected classical craftsman, the kite shows a crane flying over foam-flecked waves.

The kites look as beautiful as wall murals in museums, but most were built to be flown, said Tal Streeter, the New York collector whose kites will be in the Bijutsu-kan gallery in the Japanese Showcase through September 1986. The kites were selected for Epcot's exhibit by Streeter and by curator Ron Otsuka of the Denver Art Museum.

Admission to Epcot Center is $19.50 for adults, $16.50 for children ages 3 to 12; hours are 9 a.m.-8 p.m. daily. Epcot is at Walt Disney World, off Interstate 4 southwest of Orlando. For details, call (305) 824-4321.